This Is Your Brain Making Maps

Turns out that our brains categorize stimuli automatically and here are some beautiful, nifty visualizations of the process. Damn, science!

The researchers from Gallant Lab at UC Berkeley placed volunteers under an MRI machine while they watched “marked up” trailers. Each “mark” in the trailers labeled the objects with their common names. The researchers were able to track the activity in parts of the brain based on the stimulation yielded by each word. During the tracking process a distinct pattern emerged, demonstrating the brain’s tendency to group observed objects into relevant categories.